


Say it.

by amamiiya



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi is just his "last friend", Akechi is visiting Inaba on a "vacation" and just happens to waste time with this guy., But he makes the most of it., Gen, He's got a shit home life honestly., It's generally calm, Mentions of Persona 4 characters, Pre-Persona 5 Story, Ren is just fucking depressed, Ren is the one dying, They Both Die at the End AU, They're his family but not.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:46:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27142642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amamiiya/pseuds/amamiiya
Summary: Death-cast called Amamiya Ren at 12:12 AM, being 12 minutes late, to tell him that he's going to die today, which Ren accepts wholeheartedly.Ren is alone, spending the day taking in Inaba's sights that he had missed before. This Christmas was his last, and he'd make the most of it. He was upset he was alone, he was upset that he was dying young, he was upset that he'd missed everything before this, but he seemed to accept two things.He would die alone and he'd die before anyone in his family.
Kudos: 19





	Say it.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [probablyakira](https://archiveofourown.org/users/probablyakira/gifts).



**_December 25th, 20XX_ **

**_. 12 : 05 AM ._ **

_**—** **—** **—** **——————————————————————————————** _

  
  


A 15 year old boy, sitting on his windowsill. One leg crossed under the other with that one hanging out. It was just 5 minutes past midnight, the winter air breezing into the room and sending a chill down his spine. Had the feeling of heat and smoke filling his lungs and settling on his taste buds not kept him somewhat warm, the light blanket wrapped around his shoulders would aid his long sleeves and sweatpants attempt to do that.

It’d been snowing for some time down in the small town of Inaba.

Elementary kids would participate in snowball fights down in the shopping districts, others building snowmen with friends and family down the streets and in their front yards.

_Flick._

Middle schoolers and high schoolers often spent their time hanging out after school in Junes, keeping themselves warm with hot chocolate and the heaters going throughout the store. Looking at gifts to get others for later on in the month. Some were just doing their jobs, trying to earn some cash to help pay for their own gifts.

And of course, there was the busy housewives and husbands. Running to and fro with shopping and meeting with others to discuss the latest gossip that the small town had to offer them. Some picked up their children, others visited the shrine with them, some took the train to Okina City or drove up there themselves to visit the theatre… things of that nature.

He stubbed out the stick against the outer wall of the house, twisting his body to land back inside of his room. Throwing the crumpled, small object into a trash can near the door. His other hand reaching behind him and out from under the blanket to close the window and let warmth completely settle back into his room.

The moon gazed dully, the new snow clouds slowly coming together to cover it up. Oh, to be a rabbit on the moon and pounding away at mochi for days on end. Sounds like it would be much more entertaining than whatever happened in his daily life.

He still hadn’t wished the person “ closest “ to him a sweet ‘ Merry Christmas~! <3 ‘ like a boyfriend should do.

After setting the blanket back down on his bed, he approached his dark oak desk and unplugged his phone that laid ontop of work books and other papers. The dim screen came to life after leaving it’s charging state. With a few taps on it, it unlocked and he checked the notifications that awaited his attention. A few notifications on Twitter from artists he liked, an email or two, and something from Instagram regarding Akira.

Honestly, he should just get rid of the app already. It’s not as if he uses it anyways.

..Akira would just make him install it again.

Unfortunately, sleep had long left the insomniac. With a crouch down to pick up the laptop that rested on the ground, he returned to bed and put it in his lap.

One lift of the screen, awaiting for it to blind him for a moment and spurr to life.

The password being put in…

Finally, he had access to other sites. He was met with an entry on a specific one. _Countdowners._ People who had gotten told that their ending was coming within 24 hours or less were signing up left and right to document their last hours to live and thus, content was provided almost non-stop. Photos, status updates through text, videos, anything that would let people just know that they existed and lived once. The most recent post he was reading was about a young woman and a young man. Supposedly a couple who had just recently gotten married. The woman was holding the man's child, and it just so happened that the man had gotten told that he didn’t have the time to see their child grow.

They promised each other that they would spend the day to its fullest, revisiting old places they would go to for dates and in general reliving their younger years together. All the way to the end, when her husband would take his last breath.

She wrote an epilogue for him. Gave more insight into the life that they lived and the man’s life and personality. In the end, she would have all his gifts to remember him by. The money to support them and their smaller shop in the city, the butterfly pins and clips and the ring he proposed with… especially their child who she promised that she would raise with high spirits so they can live just like how he’d want them to.

A sweet story. A rare occurrence when it came to the people who’s clock was ticking. Most died before they could properly finish, others never got the chance to start, things of that nature. All of these stories were just part of the course life presented them. They would have to accept that not everyone was given such a fair chance, as most often did by the end.

Clicking on the tab of another story, currently still active, he scrolled through the few posts he had missed. This one was about an heir to a food company. Her father was given a call that it was his death day, and thus she kept everyone in the know of how her father was doing and what was currently happening. Since he was some bigshot, it only made sense that it’d have attention. Some people did suspect that she was just trolling, however. Others got on her for not being an actual victim. It didn’t matter either way, not to him.

Other tabs held a story of a young reporter and her partner in crime, said to have had an unfinished ending for whatever untimely end she met, a elderly woman getting help from a young man to get her story out, a young man who was ill and given the call that he would be meeting his end that day.

Depressing? Of course. You were reading the final moments of people’s lives. Some were taken lighter than others, but your eyes would be met in the struggle of continuing to piece together their thoughts or looking away to spare yourself from grieving over someone you hardly even knew.

The teenager didn’t even have an option this time.

A familiar tune, one that had begun to play on TV shows to make tension rise. Sometimes you’d hear it on the streets, far away or close by. The calls in Inaba hardly happened except to the ill or elderly.

He wasn’t elderly. Ill could’ve been questionable.

Picking up his phone from near his legs, he flipped it over to view the screen with the ringtone growing ever so louder in his palm.

_Death-Cast._

There really wasn’t anything else that ringtone belonged to. He should’ve understood the moment it took him out of his thoughts. Even though it felt so hard to breathe and his heart started to pound in his chest, he kept his calm surprisingly well. A thumb tapping against the symbol for “ talk. “

“ Who is it? How can I help you today? “ He said. Tired, on the verge of sleeping as the laptop screen began to strain his eyes from reading multiple threads.

“ Hello, I’m calling from Death-Cast. I’m Nishiwaki Yuko. This is Kurusu Ren, correct? “

A suck through his teeth that he can only hope didn’t get picked up. Letting his back fall and make contact with the bed, he let out a quiet groan and dragged his free hand down his face only to drag it back up and tug the black fringe and curls away. “ ..I prefer being called Amamiya Ren… but yes, that’s me. “

This is it.

Nishikawa cleared her throat.

“ Amamiya-san, I regret to inform you that sometime in the next twenty-four hours you’ll be facing and meeting an untimely death… and while there isn’t anything we can do to suspend it, you still have a chance to live your day to the fullest. “ Spoke in such a robotic way, even Ren could feel her bored feelings rubbing off onto him,

Before she could bother giving him the rundown of lists and other things that were included in the package of unlucky timing, Ren simply thanked her and cut it off with “ I understand. Thank you for telling me, Nishiwaki-san. I won’t trouble you with extra questions. “ and hung up.

For the longest time, he could only stare at the lock screen on his phone until it fell asleep and left him staring at his own reflection.

There were a few things that came to mind after having spent so much of his free time reading up on the last days of unlucky folks. If that was actually true and not some person he made enemies with having their parents or a co-worker giving him some false call to scare him then he’d have to live with some ounce of caution… although living with caution could either mean not doing things that gave him a sense of living or staying inside for the entire day and letting himself rot.

For a moment, he wanted to consider the fact that it was just a fake call. He didn’t have the money to sue anyone, and surely the authorities wouldn’t help him. So rather it was just a debate of if he’d live to see tomorrow. People were cruel enough to do that, put up fake calls to scare people, see how they would react.

  
  


His reflection looked lonely.

He’d die the same, if the call was right.

Death-cast called Amamiya Ren because he was going to die sometime today, December 25th, and he couldn’t escape that fate. Nothing was ever explained when it came to Death-cast, and he didn’t have to care about how they got their information.

There were apps for people who had learned that they got the call. These people named themselves _Deckers_ . Deckers were the dying and the dead. The apps in question were something along the lines of “ _Necro_ ” for the older audience and “ _Last Friend_ ” for people who just wanted comfort.

Honestly, Ren should be grateful he was told he was going to die. It meant that no matter how many fights he got into with his classmates, he wasn’t going to die in them. Death-cast would’ve called him in the middle of one.

He should be grateful that Death-cast was almost merciful.

The time was 12:25 the next time he checked it. 20 minutes had passed. The call was received at 12:12. 12 minutes late. Death-cast was 12 minutes late, but he could forgive it. They had thousands of people they needed to reach. Some reacted worse than he did. They were right for that. They had lives to live. They had a chance that was taken from them.

Ren stared at the black mirror his phone was.

...His reflection was always this lonely, wasn’t it?

Even when it showed the images of him and his caramel-haired lover, nothing ever said that he had company. Nothing told him or Akira that he was with someone.

Perhaps it was just his past coming to shine through him again.

Even with something as warmhearted as the Last Friend app would be, there probably wasn’t a person in Inaba who would willingly spend any amount of time with him. Decker or not.

He pressed the power button, tapping in the password and opening the messenger app. The first contact was obvious Akira, being named just a simple “Onii-san“ in his phone. Scrolling down some was “Kurokawa Nahoko”. With a tap on her name, he opened up a new chatroom.

—————————————————————————————————

[ **New Chatroom Opened** ]

12:26AM 25 / 12 / XX

Merry Christmas, Naho-chan. >

I don’t know when you’ll wake up, since it’s pretty early. >

But I thought I should tell you that. >

Message back when you are up, see you. >

—————————————————————————————————

Honestly, there was doubt that lingered in him. Nahoko probably wouldn’t do such a thing, nevermind does he know if he’ll still be alive by the time she wakes up or even bothers to look at the messages he sent him. There wasn’t a reason to double check that call anymore, actually. Something in his gut told him that it was today. That it was approaching.

The time is 12:27 AM.

Death-cast called Amamiya Ren just 12 minutes ago to tell him that within the next 23 hours or so he would die.

Amamiya Ren was a 15 year old first year who attended Yasogami Highschool. He had a girlfriend, age 17, named Kurokawa Nahoko. Amamiya Ren was a 15 year old who wouldn’t have seen past his first year anyways, he’d been planning something for some time already. He wouldn’t get to see his 16th birthday, which was only two days away.

Amamiya Ren would die before anyone else in his family, and he accepts this fact.


End file.
